oh no, it was all going so well...

[geekmong]

Hi to you all, please could you advise me on the following problem i have encountered this afternoon.
I decided to fettle the brakes on my 82 model LS and all was going to plan. I started with the rear brake, stripped it down, cleaned it, checked the shoes and put it all back together, works a treat now.
Then to the front, the fluid needed changing, i undid the r/h bleed nipple and pumped the old fluid out, leaving the reservoir empty. I then tried to undo the l/h side nipple but managed to shear it off clean to the caliper without it moving at all. I decided to swear profusely until my partner brought out a mug of tea and biscuits. I now had a bike with no front brake. I decided to try to bleed the system anyway, although the l/h side caliper and brake pipe will be full of old fluid. I have bled the system using just the r/h side bleed nipple only and have some sort of lever at the bars, there is still air in the system and i have used a tie wrap around the brake lever holding it to the bars, hoping remaining air will rise to the fluid resovoir by morning. I have left the cap on the resovoir, is this ok as i dont want the fluid contaminating with air/water. I hope by tomorrow morning i will have a better lever as at the moment there is at least a cm of free travel before i get any pressure on the lever if that makes sense.
Will this work ?
As for the l/h broken bleed nipple, is there any way of removing it, ie drilling. Or shall i bite the bullet and source another caliper? all advice gladly recieved.

[Barry]

Regardless of broken bleed nipples, draining all the fluid out can lead to difficulty in getting all the air out on refilling.

2 things sorted mine. I filled the system bottom up using a large syringe connected to the bleed nipple and  yes tying  back the brake lever overnight seems to firm it up.

The caliper will have to come off and be split apart to drill out the bleed nipple. Not the easiest job but at least there's a hole in the middle to centre the drill.

[nhmaf]

+1 What Barry said to remove the old broken nipple.
Because the sytem takes fairly little brake fluid, and I always start with a fresh/new bottle, I NEVER drain all the fluid out of the reservoir - I usually take it down to about 1/2 full, and than start adding in some new fluid on the top... pump and drain a bit more out the calipers til half gone... add some more new... repeat until you are getting nice clean, clear blake fluid coming out of the bleed screw on that caliper, then go round to the other side and do the other.  This way, you never introduce air into the system (or very little) so it is easier to get things working nicely, sooner.  You do waste a bit of brake fluid, but it isn't costly and you should not be using/leaving opened bottles around for a month or more anyhow as it will absorb water from the air.